Rising Storm
by icer01
Summary: Phoenix and Maya assumed they'd continue their legal office and friendship... but of course then it all went awry. Will distance and adversity succeed in tearing them apart? What do they feel for each other, anyway? Chapter 10!
1. Beguilement

_DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, et al are propety of Capcom, no copyright infringement intended._

_Well, this story will get far more interesting in later chapters that I've already written, but let's set the initial scene in motion, shall we :)_

* * *

It was inconceivable to Phoenix why he was _moping_. Maya's been away before, he chided internally, his gaze fixated to the wall. She even said "I'll be back in a month, just you wait!"

Unbidden, the errant thoughts churned to the surface. She wasn't the Master before. She had less pressing matters at Kurain.

Why does it matter? retaliated Phoenix to his paranoid half. Maya has her own life to lead.

His subconscious did not appear to accept this entirely reasonable dismissal.

A distraction. Phoenix grabbed his toilet brush and mauled it around the bowl obsessively. Some explanation _was_ in order, he surrendered.

He thought back to the years he and Maya had spent together. It didn't take much thinking.

"I… I want to protect her," he mused, recalling the times she'd been on trial, the murder attempts, that kidnapping… "I'm scared something will happen to her in Kurain without me there to protect her. That's all."

A renegade part of himself persisted that he was still lying.

"And that's stupid. The danger from Morgan Fey is past." The toilet internals glinted like a mirror, but regardless Phoenix unleashed a second tidal wave of cleaning liquid and scoured frenetically.

"Maya will be back in a month. That's all."

He decisively up-ended the toilet cleaner bottle to cascade a third assault of liquid, but the bottle was revealed to be empty. Thwarted from this delusion facilitator, Phoenix prowled the office. His rapacious gaze seized upon Mia's law books. Mia had 'left', told him she had nothing more to teach him, but maybe she assumed he'd read them? Phoenix detested study and exertion [at least when the motivator of a friend on the line was absent] but he had to numb his insubordinate brain with _something_ deflecting.

He would make himself a better lawyer and blitz the next case. Maya would be so impressed…

No, this track was defeating the purpose of the exercise. Undesired recollections poured stubbornly to the surface. Maya had been so insistent on helping him after that first trial with Morgan that she'd even attempted to read them. She hadn't progressed very far, but she obviously lacked a law degree or.. well probably any kind of mainstream education in anything except spirit channelling and the occult.

All _his_ education appeared to be to little avail as for the fifth time he ungratifyingly re-read the first section of the book he'd randomly grabbed. It was a while before the revelation hit that this was actually about property law, not defending 'criminals' at all.

He flipped to a subsequent section, but it was an unfathomable sea of greyish obfuscation. Squinting as he choked on its foam of obligatory dust, Phoenix lurched resignedly for another volume.

The print progressively daubed into indecipherable stains. Phoenix's glazed eyelids slackened, and his now haphazard spikes ultimately drooped to the desk.

***

* * *

It was barely forty minutes before something prematurely roused him, into the unpleasant sensation of his nostrils embedded in the musty page of the law volume.

Oh. The phone was ringing.

"Hello? I'm sorry, Sir, I'm not taking cases at present. No, my assistant is away, we're not… Look, there are other lawyers. Why don't you try Gavin and Co., they're nearby." Something in the 'potential client's manner and insistence about his 'little daughter' had jarred him, though Phoenix was not consciously aware of it. He _was_ aware, however, that his nap had not cured his pressing problem; mentioning his 'assistant was away' had conclusively _re_invoked it.

Some TV. That would work. It was supposed to send half your brain to sleep, right?

Unfortunately, tonight's offering proved to be a Nickel Samurai marathon. Contradictory to what could have conceivably been fatal to the series, the producers had merely capitalised on the ex-star Engarde's murder convictions. They had rewritten a dramatic plot twist that the Nickel Samurai was actually a deception instigated by the Evil Magistrate, recently forced to trigger his true malicious identity. The change in actor and related voice was conveniently justified by the physical degradation wrought by the Magistrate's ongoing subsumation of the Samurai's psyche into his evil incarnation. Nickel Samurai was now exponentially _more_ popular due to the blanket media publicity and the unanticipated plot reversal.

And as the screen glinted with the Evil Magistrate's kidnap of some unwitting victim, there was only one thing Phoenix could think of…

He jammed his finger on the remote's 'OFF' switch.

Well, back to the books.

As Phoenix's eyes meandered over the paragraphs for the 8th time, an inconvenient truth jammed into the forefront of his consciousness.

It's not just that I want to protect Maya. _I_ need her, need her here _with me_.

What are you saying? retaliated another, exasperated segment of himself. You're not a rookie. Your _mentor_ said you no longer needed her.

Aware the tussle was still infuriatingly inconclusive, he continued "It's not like you have to be together _all_ the time. You've taken cases before without her here."

There, totally rational!

"Well, _one_ case at least…."

Doubt surged to awash away his flimsy reasonings of denial.

What _was_ this? He was supposed to be a proficient lawyer. Maya didn't even _do_ any of the technical legal reasoning, _he_ did that.

It was something else, wasn't it.

Phoenix sighed. This was confusing. He'd never had a friend like Maya, who periodically produced such extremes of emotion in him that they even eclipsed his dedication to _Edgeworth_, catalyst for his adult life's purpose and inherent meaning.

It wasn't anything like the delusion he'd felt for 'Dollie', so he assumed it could not be categorised as 'romantic interest'. Phoenix was perplexed in attempt to conceptualise or define it. It simply bore no precedents to anything which he could orient himself, so he had disregarded it out of necessity.

He consciously suppressed the issue but his subconscious churnings reiterated unabated. 'Love' and 'romance' had almost destroyed him and brought little but pain and torment. If anything, at least he and Maya were _genuine_. That alone had long marked it as something other than his knowledge of 'romance.' Even now able to put the incident in context after its recent resolution, parts of his maturity regarding romance were… languishing years behind in the past.

Well, Maya will be back in a month, he soothed himself. She's never betrayed me before. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do to improve the legal practice.

Reassured by the security of his continued friendship with Maya, Phoenix spontaneously seized another volume. "Evidence Law,' he mouthed to himself, finally relaxed enough to concentrate. "The presentation of evidence upon.." Phoenix's attention was firmly embedded in his book when he was jarred out of the paragraph by the phone's trill.

The disorientation eliminated its concept from his brain.

"Hello?" Him again. "I'm sorry, Sir, I'm not taking cases at present. My assistant is on leave and… No there are no 'short, easy cases', even if I am a 'proficient lawyer' like you say. There are other lawyers, why don't you try… I'm sure I'm _not_ your 'only hope'. I'm sorry your 'little daughter will be all alone and starve to death…'"

What was he _saying_? panicked Phoenix as he trailed off.

Disconcertion resurfaced.

Zak smirked. The bleeding heart lawyer had taken the bait perfectly. Now to conjure the final trap…

"Well, okay," Phoenix found himself surrendering to ensnarement in Zak's illusion-veiled wheedles.

"I'll come and _discuss_ your situation, but I am _not_ committing to the case, understand."

***

* * *

Mild disorientation gripped Phoenix as he stood behind the defense bench as the trial began its opening formalities. The previous night's events were recalled only as a frenetic hyper-reality. What had happened? He couldn't leave Zak and his poor little daughter all alone to starve. She had no other family. And he was a proficient lawyer, right?

Yes, he remembered now. He'd started feeling really confident somewhere along the line. It was after that drink (what was it, grape juice..?), no that couldn't be it. It was because he'd won that poker game. And, well, now he was supposed to win this case. His client's life was counting on him!

The rest of reality took on a surreal irrelevance to his frenetically surging mental processes.

* * *

***

The… the evidence was forged?

The surreality of the glowing edges of the courtroom began to impound and close in on him, surging to crush him in a brutal ache in his skull. He stood, frozen.

Gavin called a witness.

Phoenix was incapable of self-defense. His mouth could only flop open and closed like a dying fish.

Zak had disappeared.

Phoenix merely found this information confusing.

The brilliantly harsh hues began to dull, replaced with a steadily greying atmosphere and an intense nausea.

What had happened?

I am going to throw up, murmured Phoenix distantly, figuring that an illegal dash to the toilets would be better received than a soiling of the courtroom carpets.

He'd barely made it through the restroom doorway when he spewed up the contents of his digestive tract: bile, grape juice and… whatever malicious substance Zak had 'magically' slipped in the grape juice.

One of the bailiffs entered and briskly escorted him out. No longer assigned status of a respected lawyer, it appeared Phoenix was currently regarded with the contempt of a criminal within courtroom protocols. His little restroom incursion had been a mistake. The bailiff permitted him a paper towel, but Phoenix suspected cynically that this was to avoid the bailiff having to contact with Phoenix's stray vomit rather than any respect for his personal dignity.

As he again stood in the courtroom, decisively flanked by bailiffs as the proceedings continued, he floundered to comprehend the revelation. The experience of finding he had presented forged evidence and its connotations was so surreal that Phoenix could barely believe it occurred.

Mercifully, things wrapped up for the session relatively swiftly. Although presenting forged evidence was a criminal offence, it was not of the severity to require immediate police detention. The court allowed him to depart, pending future summons.

* * *

***

Hazily dragging himself home, he partially expects to awake from slumber to find his headache cured and that the events of the trial didn't really happen. But when he awakes fretfully a few hours later, the headache has merely increased in intensity and an extraordinary meeting of the Bar Association Review Board is imminently occurring.

Upon their verdict, all Phoenix can manage to do is stumble blindly out and collapse in a vacant corner. He can't move, can't amass the energy to sit up from his sprawled droop. Staring unseeingly into the wall, he vaguely desires that the Earth will swallow him up, that reality will cease to exist, that somehow this _isn't true_.

After several hours of this, his pained limbs resurface him into some kind of mental coherence. Rationality pours forth to a last-ditch attempt to avert the disintegration of what so much of his adult life has revolved around. He'd been in disasters before. He should just solve this one the same way, by an investigation. He clings to this one hope. Somehow this wasn't true, he didn't forge evidence, so he would merely find the answers and avert this nightmare. Knowledge that if he doesn't move now he may never amass the will to do so again and a last ditch desperation of denial sends a surge of adrenalin through his limbs.

He runs around in a frenzy, attempting to investigate Zak's disappearance and the crime. But soon he reaches the limits of what he can do, and loses both the temporal distraction from his situation and the hope that he can miraculously avert _this_ disaster with the real truth.

He continued roaming the streets, desperate to keep doing something, now devoid of direction, vaguely hoping his feet will carry him away from the nightmare situation. But instead it travels with him, increasingly subsuming and asphyxiating him. So many of the bearings by which he'd set his life had collapsed without warning.

But eventually sheer exhaustion overtakes him, and he drags himself back to the office and collapses on the couch.

Even when he awakes again, the futility renders him incapable of movement. His entire adult identity has somehow been built around the empowerment tied with being a defense attorney. He can barely comprehend what he's supposed to do now in life without it. Going through the motions seems pointless – for what _purpose_, exactly?

His phone rings several times, plummeting into his murky daze, but Phoenix can't amass the will to pick up. He can't help his friends any more, and he can't expect them to keep supporting him or even to believe him. Associating with him would just unfairly tarnish their reputations anyway – and this mistake was nobody's fault but his own. Sure, he didn't forge the evidence – but he was stupid enough to present it. He had no-one to blame for the situation but himself.

Overwhelming guilt at tarnishing Edgeworth's image, at betraying the legacy of Mia and the future hopes of Maya were literally too painful to deal with at this time, and he descended again into the trackless paralysis of futility.

***

_Oh no.. drama. Well, had to make such an unfortunate canon premise interesting.. :) Might rewrite part of this chapter later.  
_


	2. A New Order

Maya had applied herself to her tasks with fervour. There were so many details to arrange as incoming Kurain Master! Well, okay, she wasn't _officially_ Master yet, they had to have that Initiation Ceremony, but that was required to occur on some specific date associated to the alignment of the stars, planets and spiritual radiation of the current year.

In terms of administrative affairs, however, that burden had passed to her as soon as her mother's soul departed.

Maya was currently attempting to compose a list of initial fundamental reforms she would instigate as Master. Whilst some were obvious and straightforward [_Install satellite dish to receive maximum TV channels._] [_Arrange regular delivery of modern foodstuffs_], some were more dubious [_Install security cameras in Channelling Chamber. Will it interfere with spirits???_] and still others likely to be met with dogged resistance. They were big on 'tradition' here. Maya was sick of 'tradition'.

She was reiterating this to herself when her phone rang.

"Maya? Can you tell me what happened with Wright?"

"Mr Edgeworth!" Dispensing with polite opening formalities was noticeably unlike him. "What… something 'happened'…?"

"I wish to hear the full story and Wright's perspective before passing judgment. What _really_ occurred at the trial?"

"Trial? Um…" He couldn't still mean _State vs Iris_, so that meant…

From the tone of Edgeworth's questioning, a subconscious trepidation gripped her.

"I'm sorry, I've been in Kurain," explained Maya.

"Oh curses, I thought you were with him! You.. haven't heard?"

Maya's heart lurched into her throat. "No…"

"_Ahem_", coughed Edgeworth awkwardly. "Well, there's quite the media inflation. Conversely, it's on the front page of today's newspaper. All spin and embellishment I expect.."

The daily newspaper was one 'technological advancement' which _had_ made it to Kurain. Maya pawed for and unfurled it.

"Recall they also refer to me as the 'Demon Prosecutor'" pre-empted Edgeworth tenuously.

"Wh.. _what_?" stammered Maya. "Nick wouldn't 'commission a forgery'. He can't even afford it!"

"_Ahem_", coughed Edgeworth again, embarrassed both at the tactlessness of discussing his friend's financial situation and at divulging his deep affection for Wright. "From examining the resources that I have been able to obtain, it is suspicious Prosecutor Gavin was able to so rapidly summon that 'special witness'."

"Right. Um, have you talked to Nick?" enquired Maya absently. A headache was slowly overwhelming her.

"Well, no. That, incidentally, is partially why I contacted you," admitted Edgeworth. "He doesn't appear to be taking my calls."

"I'll.. try ringing him." Of course. It sounded so empty. Why was she in Kurain…?

"Call me back after. Please," expressed Edgeworth.

"I will." After rapid parting formalities, Maya jabbed Nick's entry on her mobile.

Endless dialtone. After myriad repeats of 'redial', Maya figured she'd try Edgeworth again. At least he had more _information_ than she did.

"He.. doesn't seem to be answering," confessed Maya tentatively.

Edgeworth muttered something under his breath.

"M… maybe the police locked him up?" guessed Maya, struck with inspiration.

"I have already confirmed Wright is not in police detention," explained Edgeworth. "I expect he is keeping a low profile. Or.." Edgeworth did not wish to impart with references to his own 'revelation he presented forged evidence' responses.

Maya, however, instinctively sensed to what he alluded.

"I am stuck in Europe at present. I expect that you have pressing priorities in Kurain."

"No," countered Maya, mental bounds to her Master duties immediately dissolving, "I'll go and speak to him now. In person."

"Good," breathed Edgeworth, momentarily slipping his facade of 'emotional detachment'.

"I'll call you after I've talked to him," continued Maya as she decisively tore the newspaper article to shreds.

She haphazardly flung a few random items into a suitcase and charged for the train station, her phone on continuous redial.

***

* * *

Nick's apartment was closer to the station, so she tried there first.

Locked, silent. Abandoned. She hoped he wasn't inside.

That left the office. If he wasn't there, she wouldn't begin to know where to look.

She knocked first. "Nick..?"

No reply.

The door was locked, but she had her key.

The last stray beams of greying light poured through the windows and fell on a despondent figure collapsed on the couch.

"Oh Nick..."

His eyes chilled her with their glazed, vacant expression; too much reminiscent of those of Mia and her mother after they had died.

Maya knelt beside him and took his hand..

He shifted slightly, as if he registered her touch, but his eyes did not meet hers.

"Tell me what happened."

He did not respond.

"Nick, please. I'll believe what you say. I don't believe _them_".

"I.. I didn't know." croaked Phoenix. "I really didn't know."

Maya had to believe him. She believed in him, just as all those times he'd believed in her.

***

* * *

"He didn't do it," explained Maya to the anticipatory Edgeworth. "I mean, he didn't know."

It had taken several days to get a coherent recollection of events from Nick. He'd spent long hours staring into space, seemingly lacking the will to do much at all. Maya had brought him water and reassurance and waited [he always refused food], and he was finally coming round.

"Some kid he never saw before gave it to him, and she turned out to be the client's daughter and well.."

"Our poor beleaguered Wright walked straight into a trap?"

"I guess," sighed Maya.

"Stupid and irresponsible, but not worth career and reputation annihilation," murmured Edgeworth, more to himself. He took a breath. "Listen, Ms Fey, this is highly confidential information. I _don't_ want you telling Wright. I will try to resolve Wright's situation, but I'm currently constrained from much influence in the District Justice Department."

"Oh..?"

"It seems someone [a certain Prosecutor Gavin], was alerted to my recent day of unlicensed criminal _defense _and has instigated an enquiry_. _If Wright finds out he'll blame himself. He's got enough on his plate now as it is."

Worst conceivable timing, fumed Edgeworth. He _had_ planned to lie low overseas and indirectly exert his influence to diffuse the 'Day 1 _State vs Iris_' matter. He did _not_ tell Maya of his fears of a worst case scenario – the court proceedings somehow being ruled invalid, a _re_-trial, forcing Maya to again testify about what must have been one of the most scarring incidents you could inflict on someone. Edgeworth well recalled how having _his_ parent being murdered before his eyes had rendered nightmares for years – and he didn't even _see_ the moment of death properly. Hopefully, Mr Armando's existing confession had already conclusively proven the verdict even with involved 'defense corruption', but with the recent 'reforms' of new Prosecutor Gavin, you could never tell.

Franziska had given him 2nd-hand information that Prosecutor Gavin took and followed instructions from some undefinable third-party, but it was probably gossip.

Or maybe it wasn't.

One thing was apparent. The requirement to 'pull strings' on Wright's behalf had conspired at a thoroughly inconvenient time.

***

* * *

"I don't CARE what you think of him!" snapped Maya.

"Oh.. oh Nick, I didn't know you were there, I.."

Tactful continuation failed her.

Well of _course_ he was likely to materialise behind her in his own office. She should make more effort to conduct her communications in private.

It was difficult though, various Kurain heavyweights called her regularly, with demands on her return date and severe censure of her current choice of company.

Maya had arranged some flimsy excuse about her activities being related to the Justice Department's _State vs Iris_ follow-up enquiry, but she knew they _knew_, really. They labelled her late night train flit as an irresponsible 'abandonment of her Master duties'.

"Are you abdicating like your mother?" one taunted.

Of course, many powerbrokers on the national Kurain Technique boards were perfectly nice, reasonable, people. Morgan, however, had installed various loud, hostile individuals in pivotal positions, and it would take far more than a month to demote or diffuse them.

When around two weeks had passed, a few of these particular individuals proceeded to make threats. Since Maya was not officially initiated, there was still time to vote that she be given official sanctions as having 'abdicated' and voted unfit to be Master.

Maya knew these were empty threats [such a ruling would never pass with the required majority], but unfortunately these unpleasant heavyweights had instead gone to intimidate Pearl with the premise.

Pearl forced to suffer because of her? She could _not_ allow it to occur. Pearl was her responsibility. How dare they!

Nick was her responsibility too.

But her job as Wright and Co. Assistant General Manager was most officially over. They'd packed up the case files and officially closed the 'Legal' practice.

Things were really bad. Edgeworth had told her. It might be years before Nick's name was cleared. Two or 3, even. There'd been no opportunity for him to successfully get an enquiry called on the diary page while the _State vs Iris_ enquiry was still going on. Any requests for one had been rejected as irrelevant and a drain on resources.

They hadn't told Nick, but he seemed to know. "I can't afford to keep renting this," Phoenix admitted, indicating the office. Mia's original practice had performed well, and it wasn't in too bad a part of town.

"You forgot the 'Co.' part of 'Wright and Co." sighed Maya.

Being a medium hadn't been very lucrative since DL-6, but things were picking up, and there was absolutely _no_ way she could just disappear back to Kurain and leave Nick unemployed and in the lurch.

"I'll pay the rent until you become a lawyer again." It was a statement, not a question.

"I… I can't just let you throw away Mia's old practice," she reasoned, attempting to justify her generosity. "I mean, then later we have to open with a new address. What a pain!"

"Right, I have to get back to Kurain," continued Maya, sighing the information she'd wanted to delay. "If you're evicted from your apartment, you can sleep here!"

"I can look after mysel… thanks," sighed Phoenix, ceasing to care lately that Maya was patronising him. Security that there was no way he could become homeless during his indefinite period of unemployment _was_ cheering.

"I have to get back to Pearl," chattered Maya, attempting to dissolve a sudden lump in her throat. "I'm probably going to officially become her guardian." She grinned teasingly. "Looks like I'll be a 'parent' before you!"

Phoenix managed a weak laugh.

***

* * *

"Nick? Do you want to come to my Kurain Master Initiation Ceremony? It's really important."

Phoenix sighed wearily, and paused to attempt tactful arrangement of his words.

"I'd like to, but won't that make things, well, really difficult for you? There's all that stigma they have about me.."

Maya had politely attempted to buffer him from the Kurain resident's highly negative opinions of him, but Phoenix hadn't won his cases by being blind.

And Maya knew that he was all too aware. It was awkward. Even the nicest and most well-meaning Kurain residents thought he was a fraud, and some actually pitied 'poor little Maya' for being 'corrupted' by his influence and 'taken advantage of in her times of weakness and need.'

No point wasting time on empty denials when they both knew the truth. "Well, I understand. But I couldn't _not_ invite you."

"And there's probably some rule against me attending anyway..?" Phoenix was familiar with the theory of previous precedents.

"Well, the _tradition_ is that only 'qualified mediums' attend, but rules are made to be broken.."

"I think it's better for you to play it safe as your opening act, though?"

"I agree. I have another request though. This one.. I really insist"

Her seriousness caused Phoenix to straighten in attention.

"The day _before_ the initiation, there's another Master ritual."

"And won't that be the same?

"No. That ceremony only has one other person."

"…?'

"Please."

"I'll come." He had a 'job interview' that day, but he'd cancel. "I'll come."

***

* * *


	3. Sunset

Phoenix was grateful that his arrival at Kurain was cloaked by cover of night.

Maya, who'd met him at the train station, reassured his cautious demeanour "If anyone complains about you, they're answering to me, right?"

"When does this 'ritual' start?" enquired Phoenix as they slipped through Fey Manor's doorway. "Is it even real or…"

"Of _course_ it's real!" corrected Maya, momentarily hurt.

"Hi Pearls," greeted Phoenix as the small medium materialised to meet Maya.

"Oooh! You chose _Mr Nick_!" breathed Pearl, visibly awed.

"Maya… why is Pearls looking at me like that?" queried Phoenix uneasily.

"Oh.. she's always like that. Don't worry, it's nothing sinister. It's called the Kurain Master Vigil Ceremony. It lasts for 24 hours, from sunrise till sunrise, just before the initiation ceremony." She gestured dramatically. "You just sit on the cliff of this mountain which is supposed to be Ami Fey's resting place and medtiate and stuff."

"Well, okaaay… wait, wasn't that _urn_ Ami Fey's resting place?"

"Yeah, well, there are always many variations on the same myth…"

"We meditate and _stuff_? What 'stuff'?"

"Well, we're supposed to be crushed under spiritual boulders, but I'm sure Ami Fey won't notice if you skip that part."

"…"

"And you chose _Mr Nick_!" piped up Pearl again.

"Well, it's traditional that the future Master takes a trusted acolyte.. er.. _person_… to accompany them on their pre-Master vigil…"

"As their 'soul' mate!" interjected Pearl. "It means their spirits will meet again in the afterlife."

"Shut up, Pearly, that's just a stupid _superstition_. It's not true!" protested the steadily reddening Maya.

Busted.

"So romantic! 'Soul' mates for eternity!" Pearl had never been so jubilant.

Now Phoenix's gaze flitted awkwardly too.

"Um, let's take a walk _outside_," suggested Maya as she firmly dragged his arm. "Don't listen to Pearly. It's just some dumb old legend."

"Most trusted 'acolyte'?"

"Yeah, yeah. A 'contradiction'." Maya's expression changed and she caught herself. "Sorry."

"But you did finish that 'Special Course'," she then recalled. "Maybe that passes you as 'qualified'. They didn't have the official _Kurain Acolyte Certification _exam_s_ back in Ami Fey's time. But I can give you a rigged certification now, if you're scared about illegality."

"Thanks, but I'll take my chances with the wrath of Ami Fey myself," elected Phoenix.

***

Phoenix shifted awkwardly in his borrowed training robes. [Were men even supposed to wear these things?] Despite his unease, thus far the Kurain Master Vigil was proving to be a far more pleasant exercise than the brutal Special Course. He didn't even have to freeze on ice or under waterfalls. The only one being subjected to harsh spiritual tests was Maya. Well, yeah, he _was_ kind of worried about that, but surely the 'vigil' wasn't designed to kill the Master before the 'initiation'.

The setting was fairly pleasant too. The ceremony was held in a cave on a cliff, with ancient magatama-shaped holes carved out of the rock, portal to mountain scenery. Also present in the cave was another of those giant Magatamas, even larger than the one at Hazakurain, supposedly radiating spiritual power.

Luminous magatama-shaped highlights chinked the spiritual boulders Maya directed him to pile in imposing formation atop her. They towered practically to the ceiling.

"Doesn't it hurt?" he panicked, concernedly.

"Well yeah, that's half the point," explained Maya.

"Are we supposed to talk?" he enquired.

"Well, not exactly. We're supposed to only meditate and chant." She lifted out a hefty ancient scroll she'd been carrying. "Can you read archaic Japanese?"

"No."

"Damn. Well, I'll chant alone."

Phoenix crouched in a meditatory position directly next to her, clutching his Magatama. He divided his attention between both meditating and also cautiously monitoring the towering stack of stones, paranoid of an impending potential avalanche. The last thing either needed was a 'rocks fall, everyone dies' moment.

He also monitored Maya, of course, but her voice continued unwavering through the million or so words of what he assumed was some massive prayer or incarnation to Ami Fey.

After the day and most of the night had passed, Maya had finally completed chanting the contents of her scroll. She indicated to the relieved Phoenix to free her from her granite and jade oppressors.

Her back was bleeding, Phoenix noted to his consternation, but Maya appeared to consider this irrelevant. 'Now we just wait for the sun to rise," she directed quietly.

They sat in silence.

Phoenix attempted to peer out of the rock-holes to the surrounding scenery, but it was still too dim to observe anything. Instead his gaze drifted to something far more compelling. She was staring at him too, eyes dark and wide with something indefinable.

Maya moved as if to speak, but her lips fell open only to impart silence. Phoenix fixated her expectantly, but she could only continue to stare at him. Phoenix himself was inspired in some intrinsic feeling he felt compelled to communicate aloud, but as he flailed for words, none came. He couldn't even transcribe sense of his emotions himself.

_Some_ mutual feeling shifted between them, but its exact translation neither could comprehend. As the pupils of their mesmerisation began to reflect the spark of sunrise, the pair were forced to stagger to their feet and leave without the benefit of explanation.

"Ah Nick.. some of the elders are coming," alluded Maya, placing a hand protectively on his arm. They were not possible to evade. There was only one functional route down from the mountain.

Phoenix nervously observed the Elders' reactions to his discovery as the controversial choice of vigil partner. Some jolted visibly with shock and seethed, others appeared resigned and uncongenial but unconcerned, a few bit their tongue as if longing to pass complaint but constraining what may be a politically unastute move just before the Master's official inauguration. Phoenix was jarred that a few greeted him with obviously-feigned goodwill.

"Master Fey, we must depart," directed the Chief Elder as a cluster of high-ranking Kurain mediums flanked her on all sides. Maya nodded, and did not speak to Phoenix, but trained her eyes back intensely into his direction as she retreated, until the Elders jostled around her and obscured her from view. Distracted, Phoenix only now became aware that the Assistant Chief Elder had materialised beside him.

"Mr Wright." She gave a disarming smile. "I was instructed to pass on a message from the Master."

"Fr..From Maya?"

If the elder suffered the subconscious urge to correct this to 'Mystic Maya' she well suppressed it. "Yes, the Master is grateful for your assistance in the past, but she does not think it best to associate with you in future. She did not wish to tell you to your face, as she didn't want to hurt your feelings. This was her gesture of parting blessing, if you will."

"I don't believe you," hissed Phoenix.


	4. Smoke and Mirrors

Most of the Kurain Elders and powerbrokers were not intrinsically unpleasant or malicious people, and much of their intense hostility toward Phoenix, Maya and the legal world had its origins in fear and intimidation.

State law had never been parallel or necessarily compatible with traditional laws and concepts of justice. Some of Morgan's key players still were of the opinion that Morgan's attempts against Maya were not criminal, but honourable and justifiable, as protecting the future of the Kurain Technique by ensuring a viable Master was a far more laudable aim, even if it meant the 'sacrifice' of one individual. The 'best interest' of the Kurain future took priority. Even those who thought Morgan's methods had been wrong were still paranoid and suspicious of official legal meddling.

Morgan had capitalised on DL-6 by cultivating and inflating the fear and resentment of the law its destruction of Kurain's reputation caused, inflaming the inferno of paranoia and animosity against both the legal world and the disgraced Misty, who had betrayed them all by becoming ensnared in its sinister tendrils and subsequently causing both her own implosion and their near-destruction.

Such chaos and panic had been a perfect atmosphere for Morgan to seize and exert control. Mia had already been lost to the legal world's 'corruptive influence' but she had never been a viable candidate anyway – brought up by and too much likely to be like her mother. 'Law' was purported as a sinister threat which had caused all their problems. Morgan could save them and salvage a future of reorder.

Due to this mistrust of legal matters, Phoenix had been viewed with suspicion even before his downfall. His associations with Maya were regarded as meddling in Kurain affairs and a dangerous, corruptive influence. Now, of course, they all believed he had constructed forgeries for his other cases too, including the three trials involving Maya. None of them believed Maya had really committed the murders (there was no motivation to kill Mia, as she had already abdicated her right to the Master position) but Maya was conclusively viewed as a troublemaker.

Morgan had taken responsibility for Maya's Master preparation education; even Mia took for granted she had Maya's best interests at heart. Morgan had assured her [handpicked, unwittingly manipulated] Chief Elders that her control of Maya's upbringing since such a formative age would reduce the risk of a repeat of Misty resurfacing in her, and little scrutiny was applied to the magnitude of powers delegated out to her in this regard. A viable future Master was integral.

Although Maya had been adequately trained in spirit channelling, Morgan had not bothered to train her in Kurain powerplays, diplomacy, politics, or any of the other arenas which might better allow Maya to wield autonomous power. Even before Pearl's formidable talents miraculously surfaced, Morgan had intended to puppet Master Maya to her own whims as much as discreetly feasible. Her disappearance off to the city had been infuriating, particularly as she was gaining empowerment in that sinister trickery which could eclipse the authority of tradition [and which Morgan secretly feared and resented] – law.

But even before Mia's death, Maya had shown risks of being insubordinate and uncontrollable. Morgan had committed to Pearl's installation as Master [now her powers had proven it possible] by this point anyway. Killing or framing Maya just as her first flails as an adult met with failure had held a palatably delicious symbolism.

***

Maya turned up at Phoenix's a week later, still ruing her experience in the cave. If only she could tell him how she felt, but the words never came out, something incoherent and stupid always did instead, and even in her head she couldn't express exactly what was between them. Couldn't admit what he meant to her, doubted he felt the same.

The intense.. relief? she saw flash in his eyes confused her, and the distraction caused her to spill her words without thinking.

"Hey Nick, that's _my_ magatama, remember? I need it for something."

That was crass. Nick startled slightly, and looked briefly forlorn, but then a resignated understanding gripped his features and he forked it over without dissent.

No, that's not what I meant at all! fumed Maya, exasperated at herself. He thinks I mean he doesn't need it any more now he's not a lawyer and I'm not his assistant manager.

She had been shy of expressing her true intentions; to utilise her newfound authority as Kurain Master to put a stronger charm on it for his protection.

"I'll give it back after," reassured Maya. Phoenix appeared bemused.

Sure enough, she reappeared at his doorway next evening. Phoenix agreed to her pleas to accompany her to the station for her impending departure.

As they reached the station entrance, she stopped, and pulled something out of her pocket.

"I _said_ I'd give it back." Phoenix momentarily froze as an uncharacteristic steely seriousness flared her eyes. "As Master of Kurain I officially bequeath this to you. There you go, Nick," she continued, returning to her usual ambivalence, "it's yours! Happy?" The smile did not meet her eyes. They were both starkly conscious of the impending parting hanging in the air; a cavernous haze of indeterminate and unforeseeable length and magnitude.

"You can always come and live in Kurain, you know. The invitation's still open. Always." They both knew it was an empty proposal. Of _course_ Maya wanted Phoenix to live with her… but the open hostility of some of the Kurain powerbrokers would make life unpleasant for both of them, and there was nothing for him or Trucy in Kurain. Heck, Maya wished she could escape herself, and she was _Master_ of the place.

"Come and visit," she amended. It was a plea, not merely an offer.

"I will." Phoenix paused, flailed, trailed off, unable to assemble what to say.

"I'll come again… soon.." trailed Maya as she was forced to board her arriving train.

"He's going to investigate_ that _case," intuited Maya, stomach churning, as the train sped for Kurain. "I should be going with him. If _only_ I was going with him."

But she was out of excuses to stay out of Kurain. The excuse of 'General Manager of ex Fey and Co.' was no longer applicable, either to the Elders or to Nick.

Their initial bonding and official partnership, now dissolved, had been about Mia. But Maya knew it had ceased to be anything about her being able to channel Mia after that case with Aunt Morgan… no, before that, that case with Mr Edgeworth. Mia had just been a cover to delude each other that was why they needed to stay together, but neither had believed it after that. And well, Maya didn't exactly have a background legal education…

It was futile. Wright and Co. Law Offices was over. Maya could sense by the dead look in Nick's eyes that it would be a long time, probably eternity, before it reopened. Something had broken in him, she could tell. Those sad eyes. And why wasn't she still with him, to try to make things better when he needed her most?

Because she was out of 'excuses'.

Maya set herself to a Master-level spiritual training ordeal, willing the flagellation of the waterfall's icy daggers to numb her into oblivion.

* * *

_Never fear, I will make up for all this angst. Blame the stupid GS4 timeline._

So we get some background explanation on those mysterious Kurain Elders and their hostility to Phoenix. The Kurain Elders seem to be mostly some fanon creation which existed since.. well, before I got into the pairing. I remember reading myriad fanfic involving them. It makes sense since there are few other plausible reasons for Phoenix and Maya not being together like they **should be**, regardless of shipping, in GS4-era. Tell me what you think...


	5. I'll be there beside you

Maya didn't blame her mother for abandoning her. Her mother apparently thought she was doing the best thing for her daughters; not transferring the mantle of shame and dishonour down as an inheritance. Though, in reality, Aunt Morgan had never really allowed Maya to forget it, and in Misty's absence she'd wielded significant influence, as the Master's sister, even with her lack of spiritual powers.

As Maya was discovering, as soon as Misty left she stacked the Kurain decision boards with participants sympathetic to her aims, and manipulated the power structures into 'reforms' taking decisive influence away from the Master and into the hands of the boards of Elders across the country, hastily rubber-stamping them 'for' the Master in her absentia. Morgan had lied that she'd had inside information that Misty would imminently resurface and this was just temporary 'emergency measures' to enable damage control in the meantime. Amid such panic, everyone believed her. By the time it was entirely clear Misty was never coming back, the new order was already conclusively embedded.

Maya knew that Morgan had been lying. Mia had told her that Morgan had insisted to Mia from day 1 that Misty would actually never return.

The hostile elder power blocs made little to no attempt to disguise their attitude to the new Master. 'You don't have our respect, and we're judging you on the basis of your past associations and 'crimes'. What's more, the stigma of Misty and her disgrace still lingers on you. Are you going to fold like her? If you can't fulfill your duty adequately, the best thing you too can do is crawl away and die!'

"No…" Maya firmly objected to herself, retreating to her 3am meditation and incense ceremony for departed spirits. She'd stacked her schedule with tasks at odd hours to distract herself from the reality she couldn't sleep, was gripped with insomnia and fraught with repeating nightmares fracturing when she _did_ doze off. This gave the illusion of control, that she took several short naps of an hour or two by _choice_.

Meticulously she lit the candles, arranging the small photos of her mother and Mia and willing their peace and fulfillment in the afterlife. Mia was more distant now, the unfinished business tying her closer to the mortal plane resolved. Initiating contact required greater exertion than previously, and it was considered poor form to disturb such distant spirits without an urgent reason. That they were a pathetic, scared little sister who couldn't look after _themself_ already was not considered valid urgency criteria.

Her mother was more distant still; Maya couldn't even precursively pinpoint her location. It was abundantly clear she did not wish to involve herself in Maya's affairs, exactly as it had been on Earth. Is she still ashamed? pained Maya. Does she still think she doesn't have the right to face me?

She would never know her mother.

There was somebody _else_ she thought of, of course, as she prayed for the departed. It made her sick she included him in the same mental category. Nick was alive. She'd gone to visit him just last month. Oh, she'd asked him to come here, but he'd muttered something about letting the other Kurain officials cool down for a while over him.

"I don't care what they think of you!" Maya had reaffirmed. "I know what _I_ think of you."

"But I care what they think about _you_," Phoenix had retaliated quietly. His expression had disturbed her, enough that somehow she couldn't tell him it was too late for that, she had constantly made everyone aware that her opinions on and solicitations with Phoenix Wright were one area where there would be _absolutely no compromise_, but had to gulp the urge to cry instead. It was her mother all over again – publically shamed over a lie, 'not having the right to face or associate with her'. Are you going to disappear too? a far younger incarnation of herself spontaneously panicked. Her mother, Mia, Nick.. the three people who exerted most fundamental influence on her life, all taken from her without warning because of.. because of a lie, an injustice!

No. I _won't_ lose Nick. I was powerless to tell my mother how I felt, that she _did_ have the right to face me, but I know better this time.

Maya's thoughts had frequently drifted to her mother. She'd never known her, she'd always been a distant and almost mythical figure in her mind. Mia had already decided quite early on to submit the Master position to Maya by default. Maya could barely recall a period of her life when she had not had _Kurain Master_ as a future already mapped out for her, to 'take over from her mother'.

If only she'd _known_, been able to say something to her that night, instead of whatever meaningless babble she'd spewed out, before her mother had.. 'passed on'. Her mother was a confusing figurehead; at once an impossibly legendary ideal to emulate and a fallible, ultimately vulnerable _non_-example, disgraced and still ostracised by many in Kurain for her shameful 'betrayal' of her duty and responsibility after her psychological implosion.

It was a disconcerting prospect to have your only true role model to your life's position laid bare in such an uncompromising light and have made transparent such devastating weakness, most likely also inherently potential in herself. She remembered how she herself had thought she'd failed Nick in the Edgeworth case, and she'd tried to leave Misty-style, ashamed to face him. But Nick had come after her, even though he was hungover, insistent she hadn't failed him at all. It wasn't channelling Mia he valued. It was _her_.

That had been a turning-point in her life and that was the moment when she'd…. well, it was best not to think of that at present. But the important thing Nick had shown her was that all those times, her 'failures' had turned out to really be _lies_. Every time, Nick believed in her.

The elders' hostility, too, was mostly built on lies, inflated out of proportion. They were just trying to intimidate her. Nick had shown her the truth all those times. This was just the same. Much as she had during her training-stint isolation post_ State vs Edgeworth_, Maya drew strength from her memory of Phoenix in the months and years ahead. Even if they were apart, she knew he'd believed in her, that she _could_ handle the Master position.

But unlike her slightly more immature incarnation, she was torn. Her singleminded focus that first time had been amassing the spiritual empowerment to become a full-fledged medium specifically so she could help him. [Both to channel Mia without fail _and_ to be a fully independent adult who could absent Kurain without restraint or re-requisition so she could be with Nick uncompromised.]

It was upsetting that it tuned out as an adult you actually had no – maybe _less_ – freedoms and control over your own life, with all those 'duties' and 'responsibilities' thrust on you. Even now, she saw that younger self as well-intentioned but naive. And worse, as Master, it was difficult to validate a coherent reasoning for long-term absence from Kurain, without her former excuse of that _pre_-existing legal position.

And worse, she had a nagging intuition that her present goals were unclear. She still wanted to help Phoenix – but how? It seemed, more than anything, languishing in Kurain was compromising, not advancing her goal. And an uneasy sensation belied the suspicion that maybe the roles were _reversed_ this time. She was the one with empowerment, such as it was, and Phoenix was the disempowered victim entombed in a prison of lies, with no-one who believed in him.

Except her.

***

* * *

Maya had feared Mr Edgeworth would be hostile to Nick's situation, but Edgeworth had seemed almost relieved to discuss Wright with whom would soon be his close confidant on the subject. Edgeworth didn't mention the guilt he felt but did mention the disconcert that any attempts to get the 'evidence's' source examined had met with conclusive failure. There was little hope of clearing Wright's name by that route.

There was a vague chance if the case itself was reopened in court, but unless Zak Gramarye returned there was no reason to trigger its reoccurence. Regardless, the forged evidence was a separate issue, and the likelihood of examining it in the trial as relevant to the murder itself was slim.

The only avenue was if the evidence, case and events surrounding it was scrutinised from an entirely different perspective. This, of course, would require fundamental changes in the current court system. What were the odds of that? Edgeworth had to admit he didn't know. People continuously purported various reforms, and every so often some were implemented, but it was a lottery, really, if any were installed at all, let alone would be beneficial to a re-examination of _State vs Gramarye_.

Or if the _real_ forger was brought to trial, and his or her myriad activities brought under examination. Edgeworth had suspicions, but he didn't have any evidence at this stage. [He hoped Wright's sole current social relations were motivated by a gut feeling and not by utter stupidity.]

Edgeworth was fundamentally negative. Wright's situation was utterly hopeless, he ascertained.

"There must be _something_ somebody can do," maintained Maya. A pained desperation flared her eyes.

Edgeworth shuffled and peered at his arm awkwardly. Maya was one of the few individuals to whom he felt obligated to _not_ impart emotional distress. He still held the highest regard and gratitude for her twice risking herself to save him in _State vs Edgeworth._

"Kurain Masters have amassed significant diplomatic power in the past," he eventually mused. " I encourage you to regain that influence and wield it, in, say, the _legal_ arena specifically. Wright could use a friend in high places, on the off-chance an opportunity ever occurs. Heaven knows he has enough enemies…"

Edgeworth jarred suddenly. "Oh what am I _saying_," he expulsed crossly.

"I _retract_ my previous advice. It will most definitely be interpreted as an imminent repeat of the exact same errors as Misty Fey. You'll be accused of again ruining Kurain via disrepute from the legal world."

"I know! But I _have_ to help Nick!" [What exactly _had_ her mother been doing with Mr Grossberg before she disappeared anyway…?]

"And all for only remote odds of success."

"I've got to try. Do you understand, Mr Edgeworth?"

"No," admitted Edgeworth. "You're just like Wright," he continued, warming into an anecdote. "He tries to run across that burning bridge – Dusky Bridge, it was – even though we all _know_ it's going to collapse. 'I had to try,' he says."

"What? I.. I'm not that idiotic…"

"Idiotic, hmm?" queried Edgeworth, faintly amused. "It was 'idiotic' to try to save you?"

"I… I thought he was trying to save Iris…?

Edgeworth's eyes ascended skyward at such communicative malfunction.

By way of reply, he continued, "I will act as your professional guidance, Master Fey. We shall meet again."

***


	6. If I woke up next to you

The Kurain Master extending tendrils into legal circles was not as imposing a task as Maya had anticipated; so precedented by the dubious groundwork of Misty Fey. She appeared to have intricately enmeshed herself, and some of the collapsed strands could be revived. With distinct discretion, of course. Maya knew the world teemed with Grossbergs and Redd Whites. And many of Misty's poorer decisions could be used as guidance by way of _non_-example.

And what kind of insanity had convinced Misty of agreeing to the ultimate manifestation of her machinations? Maya admittedly had the benefit of hindsight, but surely _somebody_ must have reasoned that dead people still lie. [Perhaps Misty's own judgement had been compromised be the recent death of Maya's father?]

But the precedent that the spheres of power had somehow swirled to allow such a misguided practice to be considered valid evidence in court was now ironically cheering to both her and Edgeworth. Moments of legal insanity had occurred before. Maybe the cards would fall into one _beneficial_ to them this time.

Phoenix wasn't the only wanton gambler.

Maya feared it would be distressing or infuriating to Edgeworth to closely necroscopy the dubious diplomatic malfunctions and mutual misguided exploitations which had conspired in the fiasco that ruined his life, but Edgeworth actually found it healing to finally arrange logical sense of the tangle of ploys and betrayals. Comprehending the tangible explicits of Misty's manipulations (and subsequent manipulation) on an intellectual level finally allowed him to release his lingering resentment of her. (The culmination triggering her ruin appeared to be more others exploiting to their own ends, rather than her personal designs for power.)

There was no requirement to openly discuss the mutual magnitude of what the dealings had wrought on their young lives. To twist the last vestiges of _DL-6_ into something ultimately beneficial would be effective final closure for both of them.

***

* * *

Phoenix and Maya kept up their friendship of course – keeping regular contact and Maya managing to visit him at least once a month – but they mostly kept their communications to uncontroversial topics and maintained something of an emotional isolation between them. Maya knew Phoenix had been somewhat emotionally maladjusted since the disbarring, but he did not show warnings of becoming dysfunctional and was proving to be a competent and dedicated parent. She didn't want to seem to be intruding or mistrusting him.

Phoenix, for his part, could sense that Maya was unhappy in the Kurain Master position and could not absolve his own guilt that the disbarring had thwarted her plans for balance in her life and the opportunity of his support. He thought it only tactless to intrude, as there was little practical help he could provide: he, after all, was the source of much of her ongoing problems and he was grateful that she had kept up their friendship despite the rest of society's ostracism and the stain it cast on her own reputation.

Maya dedicated most of her efforts of helping Phoenix into her collusions with Edgeworth.

Frustratingly, Phoenix was hostile to the premise of their ambitious attempts at regaining his status, paranoid that they would merely have their own reputations and careers ruined for his sake. Phoenix just didn't get it. If it wasn't for him, they wouldn't even _have_ those lives and careers in the first place. Subsequently utilising them to help him, even on the off-chance of risking losing them again, was trivial. But their 'legal diplomacy' activities became another area of their lives they mostly kept from him.

Phoenix himself wasn't particularly forthcoming or amicable with regards to his own 'investigations'. Oh, he'd shared what he'd discovered with Edgeworth for a time, but irrationally, he ultimately baulked regarding Kristoph Gavin.

Edgeworth was certain Gavin had framed Phoenix, even if there was no conclusive proof or evidence. He and Maya had difficulty comprehending Phoenix's reluctance to pin absolute blame on the sinister lawyer. They didn't have total proof, _maybe_ he didn't do it, Phoenix lamely persisted. This naturally irritated Edgeworth, but Maya thought she understood.

Maya realised to her pain that Phoenix still had that trusting streak, still held out with some vague hope that _maybe_ unproved negative accusations against people weren't true, _maybe_ people's motivations weren't really evil. In his head, he knew Kristoph was a murderous betrayer, but his heart still clung to a last vestige of idealism that sometimes people aren't motivated solely by personal gain and that maybe one 'friend' really did believe in giving him a chance. It was somehow symbolic of that idealistic streak of his worldview which he knew he was losing.

He'd always wanted –no, needed – to believe in the possible good in people and was in a kind of denial because he knew he couldn't any more, but wanted to delay the admission he'd had that idealism crushed out of him, that his attitude to humanity and its motivations was now cynical and negative by default.

Edgeworth and Wright, however, had a brief falling-out. "Of course he did it. Either that or _you_ did it. Are you trying to allay your own guilt?"

"I thought you believed me.."

"I believe you have gone insane," snapped Edgeworth. A few weeks later he was back on Wright's case, but to Phoenix himself he left this obscured.

***

The Elders, too, of course, continuously censured Maya of the stupidity of flirtations with legal manipulation that risked being an 'exact replica of Misty's downfall'. In actuality they were being unreasonable, as Misty's downfall had really been that disastrous attempt to have channelling become evidence in court, but Maya was disconcerted because it _was_ an inflated distortion of an actual truth. She could not delude herself it wasn't a risky strategy, and its actual motivation was difficult to deny with plausible alternate reasoning. None of the Elders believed she was enacting the last will of Mia. There was no obscuring the 'probable' motivator for her legal incursions.

***

They may not have discussed it with him, but Phoenix was not completely blind to specifics of Maya and Edgeworth's incursions into the legal diplomacy sphere, and his personal paranoia and guilt had continued unabated. What if they were ruined Misty-style by another Redd White, solely because they were trying to help him?

After he apparently assumed Edgeworth was now off his case, his frustrations exploded in a futile attempt to dissuade Maya.

"Forget it, Maya! I _forged it_, okay?"

"Nick.. you said you didn't.."

"I see I was wrong. I should have let you believe I forged it like everyone else. Then it wouldn't have to hurt you…"

"I can't do that," spat Maya. "Besides, you only took the case the night before. And the payment for the forgery was massively expensive..."

"Forget it. There's no point in wasting your life seething over INJUSTICE YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE!"

Phoenix's current emotional outlook on whether his name would be cleared was all too transparent.

***

Maya hung in the shadows of the alcove, lighting the candles for that ritual of respect for the spirits of the departed.

No one would see her now, and good thing too. Pearl was getting older, and considering education which might give her hope of a future external to Kurain: ie. NOT as future Master. [Maya had ensured her neglected academic education was attended to as soon as she began her tenure.] Pearl never expressed resentment for Maya taking what so easily could have justifiably been her position; Maya hadn't even desperately wanted it, really. She could never let Pearl know she wasn't blissfully happy and _still_ daydreamed of alternate futures she knew could never come to fruition.

Ones which meant she was unable to resist opening her Master's Talisman and staring at one of the _other_ photos in addition to the ceremonial ones of Misty and Mia, even if Phoenix wasn't dead, really. Today, she was unable to suppress tears.

Unfortunately, she proved not to be alone. One of Morgan's old chief powerbrokers slipped out from the corner she'd been discreetly observing from. Maya froze helplessly, slack-jawed, still clinging to her photo lamely. They were never supposed to see her like this.

Mystic Mira departed without comment.

***

"Are you _insane_? The Master will be the ruination of us all! Again!"

"Kurain's prosperity is increasing. Let her play with fire a little. We can always stop her if it gets out of hand."

"What's with your sudden change of tune, Mystic Mira? I thought you were determined as anyone not to let all that legal meddling pass without censure. We all know it's not motivated by the best interests of Kurain."

"Ruining another Master is not in the best interests of Kurain either," replied Mira.

Mystic Mabel gave a squeak of shock. "Are you going senile?"

"No. Mystic Maya may not be perfect, but she _has_ proven herself to mean well."

"No she hasn't. What about all that legal distraction?"

"Haven't you ever been in love?"

"No."

"And yet still she stays," marvelled Mystic Mira. "Morgan was wrong about Mystic Maya."

* * *

_Notes:_

_Phoenix's attitude to Kristoph- I don't like it, but it's as much as implied in the game and is one of the few canon hints given to how it could possibly have take 7 whole years. I thought it was a bit cheap by the writers because it's based on a bad stereotype of GS1 Phoenix rather than his more developed 3-5 character, but there are too many parallels between Kristoph and GS1 Edgeworth to ignore. 'My friend who was the only one who stood up for me in the class/peer trial when I was accused of a crime I didn't commit. People say he's a murderer and forged evidence, but maybe he didn't really." And how else can I resolve this unfortunate issue in my fic if I don't let it surface? :)  
_


	7. Tangled Up In You

"So, how've you been? Is.. everything okay?"

Phoenix sifted out what to tell her. He'd been fired for piano-playing incompetence at one of his 3-night-a-week contracts, but that was the norm, these things were temporary till they found out he couldn't actually play. He wasn't sure he'd be able to pay the electricity bill, because he'd forgotten about it before consenting to buy that expensive magic prop for Trucy. The local supermarket continuously accused him of shoplifting, based on his dubious appearance. He was aware these nasty sad wrinkles had appeared over his eyes. Oh, and there was that unfortunate evening with Kristoph Gavin.

"Everything's been fine," he assured, hoping she'd hear his faked grin over the phone.

They chatted about neutral topics for a while, intoned cheery parting formalities, and hung up.

A minute later, something compelled Phoenix to redial.

"Nick? Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. I'm just… lonely is all. Trucy's away on camp."

"Aww." Maya knew Trucy had a stabilising influence on him, as well as her care being a main daily motivator. Her usual presence made it easier to leave him. "Do you want me to come over?"

"Oh no, that would be too much trouble.."

"Not at all. I was going to go to the city tomorrow anyway. I'll just come a day early," declared Maya, rapidly rearranging her week.

"If you're _sure_.."

"I'm sure." It was such a _relief_ to get out of Kurain, anyway. "I'll be there right away.."

***

"Nick? Are you drunk?" Maya's query was non-judgemental. Phoenix abandoned his surreptitious attempts to shove the bottles under the couch with a foot.

"No. It's grape juice. It kind of puts me on a high. It's… not working right now though."

"Sorry for dragging you out of Kurain," he continued as they settled on the broken couch.

"Oh don't thank me. I.. I'm so sick of it there. I wish I could escape.."

"Maya… I'm so sorry."

"I'm sure things are worse for you. You said something happened?"

Phoenix sighed. "You and Edgeworth were right of course. I always knew it really."

"Sorry I've been so ungrateful," he added awkwardly. "I know you were trying to help me."

Maya sighed too, she was way beyond holding onto resentments . "It's okay. I'm sure it's only because you care, right? I.. worry about you too, you know."

"I'm sorry."

"No, no. I think I understand…"

Their eyes met, and whatever Phoenix saw there compelled him to continue.

"I've just been.. deluding myself. I have to accept I won't ever clear my name. I know Kristoph did it, and I know there's no way I can legally prove it. Nothing. I wasted all this time and now I'm trapped. And why? Even if I did become an attorney again, I could never believe my clients, not really."

"Oh Nick…"

"I know he's a murderer. What if he hurts Trucy because of me or the case? I'm so scared, Maya. I haven't protected Trucy. I've just made everything worse…"

"Nick..." Why contradict him when it was probably partially true. His eyes sprung tears mirroring her own.

'A lawyer can't cry until it's all over,' she vaguely recalled, and he definitely thinks it's all over.

Tentatively she wrapped her arms around him. Phoenix responded by lightly resting his palm on her back.

They expected the cautious physical contact to be awkward, but it was not, and they clung to each other with unanticipated desperation.

"I've been so _lonely_," admitted Maya, somehow spurred into candidity. "I can't admit my problems in Kurain to anybody. Not even Pearl, it's tactless if she sees I don't even like being Master when really it could have been her there. I have to pretend I'm happy. It's a lie."

Phoenix hugged her tighter in responding empathy. "I'm so tired.."

"It's all an act…"

"A façade…"

"So other people don't get hurt…"

"Or feel guilt over what they did which wasn't their fault…"

"Yeah. Nick, when did you become psychic too? We can complete each others' sentences now!..."

Their manufactured fortresses of years-old emotional isolation proved futile against collapse from whatever magnetism compelled their friendship and the weight of sheer emotional exhaustion. Maya's head spontaneously descended to rest on Phoenix's shoulder and his fell to incline with her head under his chin. They partially lidded their eyes. Words were almost superfluous as they nestled against each other.

Hours drifted past in a semi-wakefulness. Neither could amass any desire to move away. Years of parted dulling daily motions and mediocrity paled into irrelevance as they relaxed into this antidote to their debilitation.

The sun's rays streamed in next morning on the pair still groggily entangled on the couch. In the mutual final comfort of their emotional exhaustion, they'd drifted off to sleep, limbs intertwined.

"Feel better?" enquired Maya, recalling his sombre mood the previous evening.

"Yeah. You know, we should do this more often."

"Definitely…" Both hoped the other wasn't joking.


	8. Collect the bad habits

_Phoenix only ever plays 'one song', and I've seen this one thrown around by people as Hobohodo's theme song. It uncannily suits, so I was going to make it that this was the 'one song' he played. But I realised it's so parallel to his motivations it might blow his cover to Kristoph , so I had to amend things slightly. Got to admit that part of the chapter is marginally in response to the fanfic Shape of my Heart by Jean V.__ /s/4265685/1/Shape_of_My_Heart_

_I'll be pleased that things will finally be looking up for our protagonists next chapter :)_

_

* * *

  
_

It's his birthday today, and Phoenix realises he is old.

He never envisaged it would turn out like this. Trapped in a purgatory of regrets, a dogged façade, a relentless enslavement to the fraud he must play out to the world during his daily life. As the drudgery of his unfulfilling investigations, posturing with Kristoph, boredom of piano 'playing' and addictive but empty adrenalin rush of poker cyclically repeated, it seemed time was still flowing on, erasing forever his allotment of years, regardless of the imprisoning limbo in which he was destined to endlessly regret and repeat.

Milestones like today are one of those occasions where the fruitless passage of years can no longer be cheerfully ignored; where he cannot successfully bury himself in the moment. What has he achieved? Nothing. What will he _ever_ achieve? Nothing. When he'd committed to his 'investigation', he'd optimistically assumed it would take a few years to resolve at most, things might return to a semblance of normality, he'd become a lawyer again…

Things can never be as they were. He's entrapped in this treadmill. Phoenix has begun to resign himself to the fact that he's reached stalemate, possibly eternal stalemate. There's no way to convict Kristoph, no way to clear his name. No evidence and no legal system opening. Perhaps he should give up, but he literally can't. He's now too intimately intertwined in the shadowy tendrils of the Gavins and the Gramaryes. If he puts a foot wrong, Kristoph will probably kill him, and if he cannot untangle the darkness of the Gramaryes, it will likely seize and exhume Trucy.

Caring for Trucy is the one task of any meaning he's accomplished since then, but he can't delude himself that he'd performed this via the most beneficial or efficient strategies. His parenting has been partially derailed by hijacking her skills and presence into his selfish little 'investigation'.

He'd languished around the poker circuit initially on the instinctive notion that Zak would somehow resurface there – but as the years passed, this 'possibility' was revealed as increasingly remote; it was the meaningless 'achievement' of his 'unbroken' streak which kept him there, really. And of course he'd bent the rules marginally on that one. Trucy knew exactly what she was doing, somehow he wouldn't categorise it as exploitation, nor all the magic shows – she _demanded_ to do them, got upset if he tried to make her stop. Zak had 'promised' he would return one day to see her, but Phoenix's suspicions only inflated as time passed that he'd merely been lying.

What Phoenix _should_ have done, as best for Trucy and him, was abandon his selfish 'investigation' years ago while there was still time to 'reinvent' himself as… what?

It was inconceivable what he could have aspired to, being a defense attorney with its associated empowerment to save others [most particularly friends like Edgeworth] was the only genuine motivator he'd ever had, career-wise. That vague fantasy of becoming a manga artist when he'd signed up to art school was just a juvenile delusion to avoid serious career enslavement. How strange that things had so conspired. Larry was the artist of semi-minor fame, and _he_ was the loser criminal hobo.

In fact, Larry was off on some art tour right now. His remaining friends had lives apart from him. Maya too had been off on that channelling appointment in that foreign nation –what was it, Borgonia? – for the last several months. Larry hadn't totally abandoned him, Phoenix mused, but he hadn't believed him, of course. "Fired from your big-shot job? Stupid Nick, ah we all make mistakes at work. No, I didn't think it was my fault either when the fryer burned down at the fast food place, but _they_ all said it was."

And of course Phoenix couldn't expect Larry to ever believe him. Whole segments of his life now were effectively an act. It was no accident he paid little heed to grooming and donned that investigatory hat, curtailing his true identity, but he feared that old adage of eventually becoming what you pretend. It's all a lie. They're right. He _is_ a fraud.

Well, Phoenix ceded, he _should_ have moved to another city years ago where his fraudulent reputation had not so extended, and got a job at the convenience store, 3am shift. It would have eliminated the danger his 'investigation' exposed Trucy and himself to, imparted the illusion to Trucy he had 'moved on' from that devastating incident, perhaps avoided that fraud he'd trapped himself in, like a moth impaled to a flame.

Suddenly the sensation of entrapment is unbearable. Trucy has left for school. Phoenix exits the tiny apartment and wanders randomly, vision hazed by the torturous fog of his mind. His feet eventually take him to a favourite restaurant of Maya's back in the day (Menu: Burgers, Ramen.) Dazedly, Phoenix trudges in. He orders the cheapest item on the menu (a Diet Coke) and after he has sank down and opened it, he takes out his crate of grape juice.

Numbing, blanking, psychedelic, stupefying.. an overdose of anything had curious 'benefits' it seemed, and Phoenix's psychological addiction was deep-set. One of the restaurant staff notices him and comments to another staff member, who reassures the first. Leave him. The hobo is harmless.

"Maya…?" mutters Phoenix, gulping his 15th bottle. Sometimes with the haziness and the associative properties of the location, he can momentarily pretend that fatal trial never happened and he is back in something resembling his lawyer heyday. Unfortunately the pain today is unresponsive to the diluting effects of the grape juice hallucinations.

Phoenix collapses his head to the table, attempting but failing to distract himself with concentrating on the bloatedness and nausea of overdose. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He's not going to _get_ 'closure'. How much more of his life will be poisoned and wasted by this futile obsession? Tears don't fall through the mask of pain, but he cries inside.

* * *

Phoenix's current state is not conducive to piano playing, but he assumes it won't be a problem. He's played the song infinite times, so he'd assume he could reproduce it by habitual automatic memory, but even here he makes mistakes. Some of the drunk patrons jeer. Phoenix fervently hopes nobody will challenge him at poker tonight. He'll probably lose.

In resignated desperation, Phoenix begins to pound out another song. The accompanying lyrics are disturbingly revealing, but he knows Kristoph is at the Bar Association meeting tonight.

_He deals the cards as a meditation__  
And those he plays never suspect__  
He doesn't play for the money he wins  
He doesn't play for respect_

_He deals the cards to find the **answers  
**__The sacred geometry of chance  
__The hidden **law** of a probable outcome  
The numbers lead a dance_

_He may lay the Jack of Diamonds__  
He may lay the Queen of Spades  
He may conceal the King in his hand  
While the memory of it fades_

_And if I told you that I loved you  
You'd maybe think there's something wrong  
I'm not a man of too many faces**  
The mask I wear is one**._

_And **those who speak know nothing**  
And find out to their **cost**  
Like those who curse their luck in too many places  
And those who fear are lost_

_I know that spades are the swords of a solider  
I know that clubs are weapons of war  
I know that diamonds move money for this art  
But that's not the shape of my heart  
That's not the shape of my heart_

_[Shape of my heart - Sting]  
_

Phoenix probably isn't as incompetent at piano as he likes to think he is, but he has no aspiration to actually _be_ a piano player and does not want to risk internally assuming its identity. It's a transience, a means to an end. The true Phoenix Wright's fulfillment lies elsewhere.

"Well, I'm up for a game of poker."

Phoenix flinches, then suddenly realises who it is.

Huh? She wasn't due back from that channelling appointment for another month, surely? But his years-trained poker face barely flickers.

"Certainly, Madam." They depart business-like downstairs.

"I didn't expect to see you here," marvels Phoenix; they are subject to less immediate scrutiny downstairs.

"What? You thought I'd forget your birthday?" chides Maya. He is grateful that she does not appear to feel the need to remind him of his precise age. He's also grateful for that poorly disguised mysterious infusion of cash into his bank account. Maya seemed determined not to let him sink.

Maya turns on her competitive edge in the early hands, but folds early in the later. Her pride is certainly not worth any risk of compromising her friend's sole income source.

As they play, they chat about various topics, taking care not to cross anything too sensitive. Phoenix is quite sure that the only surveillance devices around here are his own, but at a location Kristoph frequents, you never can be too careful.

Maya was relieved that soon she'll be able to impart Edgeworth's rare stroke of encouraging news – the legal powers are almost certainly set to trial jurist systems. Finally, after years of unrewarded prowling and pacing, it's the legal shakeup they've been anticipating; in the brief associated chaos and muddying of established rules, it's their best and possibly last chance to get _State vs Gramarye_ or its 'evidence' source re-examined, or at least the possible re-entry of Phoenix into some kind of potentially meaningful legal position. And not before time, groans Maya. She and Edgeworth had been reaching the end of their tether on the seemingly futile endless ingratification of unrewarded legal posturing, but they'd been so preoccupied they'd neglected to recall how Phoenix's own experience must be even _more_ tenuous and unfulfilling.

She feels guilt at neglecting Nick, he's obviously emotionally malfunctioned recently, but she and Edgeworth had all their spare time consumed with jurist manipulations. They hadn't exactly imparted this information to Phoenix yet as there had previously been a strong risk it too would dissolve into the quagmire of abandoned 'potential reforms' and thwarted 'opportunities'. No wonder the poor guy is depressed, lamented Maya. His life sucks. I'll have to keep closer tabs on his well-being.

But she also knew she'd be insanely busy with the final stretch of Edgeworth's 'jurist trial' implementation project. What to do?

She knew what made her happiest. Steel Samurai! That would distract him from his problems and remind him of her. They could exchange reports on the episodes and allow bonding like they'd watched them together, even though they were apart. [Also, hopefully if he was going off the rails again, she could circumvent it by heeding warnings from whatever profoundly negative tones coloured his reports?]

***

Phoenix barely registers the spark of shock from the surreal murder before the surge of adrenalin electrocutes him.

He was already on edge from that bizarre framing attempt, a covertly paranoid animal spurred into hypersensitivity. This, perhaps, is what allowed him to observe the proceedings in meticulous detail. He is now jolted by the dual realisation that he is both in mortal peril, and that this is the kind of inconceivably cataclysmic event he's been waiting for. Instinct renders feelings of petrification and entrapment; but conflictory realisation that this is the sole opportunity of escape from the bounds of that fraud and non-closure which has hijacked his life.

Phoenix's mental processes churn frenetically, the hyper-arousal of imminent mortality triggers such necessary feats of intellect. He'll be prime suspect for the murder, that is obvious. There'd even be 'motive', Zak just tried to frame him and is partly responsible for his fall from grace as a lawyer. It would be best not to let Zak's true identity get out, that would establish more motive… Kristoph did it, but there's not much evidence, as if they'd believe the testimony of the accused 'murderer'..

Investigation of the crime scene and reasoning through cascades out instictively. In fact, he realises to his disconcert, to a non-observer, Kristoph's 'involvement' in the events would be unclear.

Phoenix is briefly torn with terror. Shouldn't any _sane_ person's sole priority in such a circumstance be ensuring his own acquittal? The death penalty is a distinct possibility; he's got that forgery and the two cleared murder changes already so they won't treat him lightly, probably will desire to 'make an example'. But the last seven years of trailing Kristoph in the futile unresolution of 'that' case hasn't really been living anyway. It's been entrapment in some kind of psychological purgatory, thwarting any hope of closure or life progression. This is his final and sole chance of escape.

Having made the conscious decision that risking his life, such as it is, is irrelevant, he relaxes into the surreality. Ensuring Kristoph gets convicted for the murder…

***

It had all seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. It was a kind of poker game, he'd tried to delude himself, the fact he was betting his life on the outcome was of little import. He'd won plenty of poker games before, so this kept him sane and avoided the risk of being paralysed by trepidation. It held a sick symbolism of which he was marginally appreciative. Throwing all the cards on the table, his bet: one Phoenix Wright's life. And it was a gamble of cosmic proportions. If the ace went down, Phoenix Wright would be slaughtered. He may as well have smeared it with his own blood.

They'd thrown away the rules years ago by unfairly disbarring him and thwarting his empowerment to act in court by legal means, and, in his highly jaded opinion, any system which allowed innocents to be killed for murders and the killer to walk free was fundamentally flawed anyway and justifiable for exploitation. It all made total sense in that limited context and manicness of imminent threat to Orly and his own life.

The manic dose of adrenalin had kept Phoenix hurled on a crazed high, but now it was finally over, and as he was taken back to the detention centre for questioning and processing before release, alone in the room, Phoenix crashed. Now his life was no longer in danger, the delayed shock and numbing began to sink in. Nauseated, his head aching intensely, Phoenix is able to carefully contemplate for the first time exactly what he's done in his hyper-aroused state, and he's starting to have second-guessings.

"I was only doing what they expect from me and have already been punished for forging evidence," just didn't seem as reasonable any more. He feels increasingly ashamed.

…Well, no. He's got to admit, he _doesn't_ regret deceiving the court. Or that gullible young attorney [Kristoph was his _mentor_? A wake-up call was seriously overdue…] But he laments he's finally degenerated into the very evidence-forging fraud the world has believed he is for the last 7 years. He'd reasoned at the time that it didn't matter, since there is no hope of his name being cleared or ever being allowed to be a lawyer again, but now he's having second thoughts. What inerasable price had trailing this fiasco wrought on him? He droops unsteadily in the corner of the cell.

And there's one person alone he _does_ feel guilty for betraying. Maya., She'd always believed he'd never forged it. What would she think if she knew? He'd instinctively not wanted her complicit in this mess – this was a product of his _own_ personal mistakes and obsessions and lack of scruple.

Eventually, the guards arrive to release him. He stumbles rather shakily out the front doors of the detention centre.

Someone is waiting for him.

"Nick! Don't _scare_ me like that.." Maya might have intended to say more, but after one look at Phoenix's face she merely hugs him wordlessly.

He'd known Maya would somehow find out about the trial. [He hadn't been able to contact her directly, communications beyond 'immediate family' had to be made through the defense attorney and there was no way he was giving Kristoph Maya's number.] He also knew he could never stoop to having her involved in the dirty tricks, mess and forgery he was executing in court that day. Would she be hugging him so affectionately if she knew?

"I didn't get the actual evidence so I made a copy," he soon blurted. "It was the same as the real evidence but… what have I become?"

"Huh? Oh, Nick, it's okay…"

"What, you aren't shocked? The card I presented as evidence was _fake_.."

"I know." Maya _had_ been to see Trucy.

"You already knew?

"Yeah. Don't get so upset. I'm just glad you're _okay_.." She dissolved into tears. "So, when your life's on the line, you act like the 'evidence forger' everyone thinks you are. No, I can't say I _agree_, but I forgive you, it didn't hurt anyone. Only took, what is it, _seven_ years for you to snap."

She affixed her gaze more closely. "What's with that bruise? Did someone _hit_ you?" she demanded, tearfully enraged.

"Uh.. I'm fine," assured Phoenix hastily.

"Well, I guess it's over now," she sighed relievedly. " Let's get out of here. We can go out to lunch to celebrate!" She glanced at him. "Actually, you look sort of.. green. Maybe we can save it for another time? Or I can just eat yours…"


	9. Against All Odds

_I decided that my other fanfic, **Accident**, occurs before this chapter and after the last. It's in the same continuity, but I'm not cheap enough to repeat it :) www . fanfiction . net /s/4284653/1/Accident  
_

* * *

Maya had to admit tedium was setting in. The requirement to cultivate continuing positive relationships with the Justice Minister, the Shadow Justice Minister, the Chief Justice… She was sick of doing free channellings for them [they would have all been clients anyway and raked in the money] and sicker still of sucking up to them and their odious relatives and ideas she didn't agree with. But anything,  
_anything_ to save Nick.

While she worked the 'diplomacy' openings, Edgeworth had poured years of long hours into extra legal publications, research, machinations and communications in the law world, anonymous and otherwise.

Maya had just endured a whirlwind two days meeting with diplomats and performing channellings in the city, and it was getting to her. She'd decided to take the opportunity to drop by and visit Phoenix too. Gingerly she massaged her fingertips against an aching shoulder-blade, but was thwarted from sufficient gratification by the bodily twisting requisite.

Phoenix, returning from the kitchen, noted her expression. "Shoulder pain? I can fix that for you," he offered eagerly, delighted to be able to offer her _some_ form of practical assistance.

"Oh, I'll be fi… _ooh_. That's _nice_," ceded Maya appreciatively, reclining into his ministrations like a Burmese cat. The accumulated tension dissipated, displaced by the firm pressure of his touch.

Phoenix was enjoying this too. The opportunity to touch Maya had admittedly proved far more alluring than anticipated.

"You know, I could _pay_ you to do this," commented Maya, eyes luxuriantly half-closed.

"How much?"

"My eternal love and friendship."

"Sounds great."

"So, what's been happening with you?"

Phoenix swept his fingers in a final arc on her back, caressing her rather tenderly before retreating. "Let's take a walk," he indicated meaningfully.

The vacant lot was fenced by rusted chains, barbed wire, and a screen of weeds. It was almost certainly devoid of surveillance devices and obscured from undesired passers-by. A useful location for imparting sensitive information.

"So you found Trucy's mother? That's amazing," breathed Maya.

She'd originally offered to channel Thalassa Gramarye in the hope of untangling both Trucy's family situation and hopefully some useful insight on _that_ case, but she'd run into an unforseen 'complication'. That, of course, was how Phoenix had known to 'look' for a dead person in the first place.

"Yeah, and good thing too," sighed Phoenix. "Trucy's always demanding I find her a 'mother'. I guess she just doesn't realise no woman would ever find me attractive," he reasoned, awkwardly tugging his hobo hat.

"Yeah," agreed Maya non-committally, marginally bemused that forming her reply was so difficult. Perhaps it was that flash of forlorn not completely disguised by his feeble laugh.

***

"Well, bye Maya," sighed Phoenix, bittersweet at the train's impending departure. "Take care." Impulsively he pulled her into a loose hug.

Maya reciprocated the gesture. Glancing at his face, suddenly something in that doleful expression and those eyes captured her. Impulse caused her to drag his head down to her level.

"What makes you think no woman would ever find you attractive?" she murmured, the resulting flicker of surprise spontaneously forcing her to press her lips to his, a brief kiss where the flow of time compacted and dilated as blissful elation glided… before jarring back into the shock of conscious reality. Maya reeled back, eschewing eye contact.

"Sorry," she muttered, and dived onto the train, tearing down the carriages until she finally locked herself into the train's toilet cubicle, panting. What had she done? Waves of humiliation shakily collapsed her into the wall as she bemoaned how it would be insufferable to face Phoenix again.

Maya drooped in the corner of her seat, overwhelmed, as the train sped towards Kurain. It wasn't so much the revelation she still had feelings for Phoenix that had jarred her – she consciously deluded herself that she'd repressed that 'juvenile teenage fantasy', but admittedly, it had probably always continued to pool just below the surface – but the exposing that she had been unable to control them and had no doubt wreaked a destabilising chaos and awkwardness into her most valued friendship. It's not mutual, she lamented, recalling that day long ago in the law office when he'd seemingly denied his feelings, he just thinks of you as a cousin or sister or something. He'd probably be with Iris if she hadn't gone to jail.

She came to the gradual awareness her phone had been ringing. Nick, the caller ID told her. Resisting a fearful compulsion to switch it off, she answered.

"I'm so sorry Nick! Just… forget it happened, okay?"

"Uh, okay. You… don't have to apologise." As an afterthought he added "Because.. because I liked it."

Silence.

"Er, well, I'm glad it's okay.." Maya finally stammered.

"Y..Yeah.." stammered Phoenix.

"M…maybe we could do it again sometime?"

"Maybe."

"Well I'll.. see you soon." They hung up.

Confusion racked Maya. She'd had (well,apparently _still_ had) a thing for Phoenix, she admitted, but she'd assumed they would only ever be friends, she'd long ago resigned herself to the fact that he only saw her as some kind of cousin…

But he said he'd 'liked it'?

Did it mean anything at all, or was he just being polite?

* * *

_-Pretend Maya's trip to Borgonia in some way aided Phoenix in finding Thalassa Gramarye. I didn't want to have to play 4-3 again to ensure plot consistency with canon, so exactly 'how' is vague..._

_Maya: "I expected money, and they pay me in these *useless cocoons*!" =)_

_If Edgeworth is indeed still 'overseas' at this timepoint, she probably took a side trip to see him too. This chapter is set after case 4-3 but before 4-4.  
_


	10. And we'll fly away

Maya and Phoenix got little opportunity to meet alone in the hectic build-up to the Jurist Trial. Edgeworth had pulled off the formidable coup of Phoenix being able to manage the trial jury for the local district, and Phoenix had a lot to organise. In a reversal, it was now _Maya_ with more time on her hands – her diplomacy roles in terms of Phoenix were done, at least in the present moment. Hopefully, if the powers-that be approved of Phoenix's running of the jurists, he could obtain a more permanent position, and maybe one day the opportunity would resurface to re-examine _State vs Gramarye_ or its associated forgery…

So Maya buried herself in attending to local domestic matters in Kurain. Her status with Phoenix was unclear, but she erred on side of caution – he just hadn't wanted to hurt her feelings. During the day there were ample distractions. But sometimes, in the half-doze of nights alone, it seemed her feelings, now having spilled over, were stubbornly resistant to safe _re_-burial. She found her thoughts falling to Phoenix, mentally replaying that moment and sensation when she'd been kissing him [strange, she realised he'd made no attempt to pull away]…

She'd fallen for Nick a long time ago, based originally on his… personality, she guessed, (and because he believed in her, and that she could trust him with her life…) but [despite all that grape juice] he still had quite a nice physique, she could _feel_ it… and this was someone who actually managed to look _good_ in those awful hobo outfits and scruffy dishevelment. [Maya mentally noted that maybe it was overdue time to lure Phoenix to another 'beach trip'.]

In fact, Nick if anything just seemed to have grown _more_, well, attractive since back in the legal assistant days. Had she just taken him for granted before or was it because he'd somehow lessened that slightly gawky air which made him seem like her little brother?

Well, if it _wasn't_ reciprocal, she guessed she'd just add this to her list of unrequited amusements with imaginary _Samurai_™ characters.. but no, this just wasn't the same, and things seemed to be worse this time. As a teenager, she'd been able to imagine a vague fantasy that they might get together in 'a few years' when she was older, it didn't matter that Phoenix didn't seem to feel 'that' way at the moment. Now her feelings were proving more intense, possibly because it was.. well actually 'past' the 'later' in her original fantasies.

She'd never anticipated something like the disbarring fiasco. Heck, now _she_ was 26, the age Phoenix was in their last case together.. had so much time really passed? She didn't feel that different, really, slightly less naive and more jaded, that was all. How would she handle the equivalent of the disbarring sinking her life and career at this identical relative timepoint?

She felt still greater empathy for him. Any kind of 'age difference' just seemed to grow steadily _more_ irrelevant as time flowed past.

But she was getting ahead of herself. Regardless of what might transpire between her and Nick, one fact was inescapable. He was still not welcome in Kurain.

Oh well. Maya closed her eyes…

***

The Jurist Trial had been deemed a success, and sometime later, Phoenix was obliged to attend a celebration partially in his honour. Various 'friends', the same ones who had ostracised and abandoned him for the last 7 years, crowded around to bask in his limelight.

Events had enacted so quickly, Phoenix was still dazed that his name had finally been so suddenly cleared. It was a strange feeling. That cloud overbearing him had given his life odd direction and dogged obsession for the last 7 years, it was almost confusing contemplating life without it. What was he supposed to do now? There was no salvaging the past, and to his future he drew a blank.

Phoenix chatted amicably to the 'friends' from the bar association and Justice Department ("We always believed you were innocent, Mr Wright, really!" they wheedled), lubricating himself with some (non-juice) alcohol as the night wore on. He could feel a headache coming on. He excused himself, retreating to a corner to observe the other guests.

He scanned the room for anyone he'd consider friends. Edgeworth had been invited, but made some compelling excuse not to attend. Apollo was there, trying valiantly to mix it with the big guns of the Bar Association, Trucy was giving him hints..

_Trucy???_ What was she doing here?

Phoenix was in half a mind to get up and send her home, but the weight of the alcohol made such an action seem too exerting. He just hoped Apollo would have the sense to keep her away from the bar.

Grossberg, still not retired, was lumberously present, locked in intense discussion with Maya..

Phoenix had been unaware Maya was attending, though he'd known she was in the city of course, and the Kurain Master position was license to gatecrash most parties.

Here he was accosted by yet another crowd from the Justice Department, hijacking him into their group and making loud conversation. Phoenix was somewhat out of the loop, so he didn't really know what to say.

After being repeatedly captured by throngs of people he barely knew, Phoenix ultimately made the excuse of a toilet break, and subsequently retreated back to his corner.

And it was here that Maya's gaze eventually fell on him.

Phoenix hadn't exactly dressed for the occasion [but then again, maybe the only clothes he possessed were those hobo outfits?] but she's thrilled to note he'd discarded that awful hat. Resisting an intense urge to straighten out those crushed hair spikes, she concedes she looks just as out-of-place in her Kurain Master robes – but she didn't _really_ come here to socialise and mingle anyway.

"Hey," greets Maya. Phoenix looks sort of dazed. "How about we take a walk?"

Phoenix can only follow tractably.

***

They meander in silence. Vitamin Square still has its fruity attractions, only marginally more decrepit, but neither are currently interested in playing with apples and oranges, so they perch slightly awkwardly on an ordinary nearby bench. Their eyes meet, a pause hangs in the air.

As realisation has finally sunk in over the actual impact of the jurist trial, Phoenix is somewhat overwhelmed with his gratitude towards Maya for being his… friend.. all this time and even before that and…

"Thank you," he eventually managed to gulp.

"Huh? Aww it was nothing," downplayed Maya, shifting her eyes.

'Thank you.' So empty. Such an understatement, and not what he _meant_ at all.

Again he flounders, at an utter loss to find words to explain what her support has meant to him, what _she_ means to him. But again, it's hopeless. Trapped in Maya's eyes, he simply can't comprehend what he should say.

But suddenly he lurched internally with revelation of what he should _do_.

Panic began to rise in him. He couldn't even remember how to do this stuff! The last time had been all those years ago with 'Dollie' and…

No, he amended, immediately relaxing. The last time was at that train station, with _Maya_.

Instinct took over.

"Maya," he began awkwardly, "remember how after you kissed me at the station we said maybe we could do it again sometime?"

"Y..yes" gulped Maya cautiously, the pounding of her heart engulfing her head.

"Could 'sometime' be now?"

"Nick…" whispered Maya, taken aback. "O..of course."

Time drifted unabated through a dreamlike state.

When they finally broke apart, Phoenix eyed Maya hesitantly and somewhat bashfully, but met only with a grin of unrestrainable elation.

In hindsight, he lamented, why hadn't he just done this [seven] years ago? Because in that moment, he had realised, the future direction of the jumbled arrangement of his seemingly futile and confusing existence made _sense_.

"I wish…" admitted Phoenix, "I wish, that somehow… we don't have to be apart any more."

***

Due to an anonymous submission by a certain Edgeworth and Fey, the Bar Association had voted on and passed the proposal that the censure and ban on Phoenix Wright practicing as a defense attorney be revoked. Phoenix and Maya were perusing the minutes of that meeting now.

"Isn't that great, Nick! You can be a lawyer again! I.. if you want to." Her eyes dulled awkwardly. "I know you find it hard to believe in people any more..."

"Oh no, Maya," corrected Phoenix, eyes fixing her intently, "there's at least _one_ person I know I can still believe in..."

***

* * *

[|| **EPILOGUE** ||]

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr Wright."

Phoenix's heart palpitated as he recognised her as the same Elder who'd tried to delude him that Maya officially never wished to see him again. Mystic Martha held out her hand, and Phoenix shook awkwardly. "A pleasure to meet you also."

"Ah yes, I must express my gratitude. I know you were integral in supporting the justified Master's inauguration and the resurgence of Kurain."

Even Phoenix's poker skills failed him as his jaw dropped languidly.

"I don't get it," mumbled Phoenix as Maya led him away, hand proudly looped on his arm. "Such a reversal? How did you do it?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Everybody's softened by the glint of money.." dismissed Maya, alluding to Kurain's recent prosperity.

"I _heard_ that, Mystic Maya!" thundered Mystic Maudred threateningly. "You can't _buy_ our loyalties with bribes. You_ earned_ our respect."

"Whatever," downplayed Maya. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she queried Phoenix, who was gazing at her with a blend of prideful endearment and awed admiration.

"You really _are_ the big shot around here," he grinned teasingly.

"There was such a great risk of Kurain again falling into turmoil and bloodshed, but the Master's impeccable judgement in face of adversity averted disaster," continued Mystic Maudred with gusto.

"I didn't invent that one," Maya protested to Phoenix's enquiring gaze.

Thus out of the tidal wave of adversity, the strands of a comprehensible future took shape.

With the inignorable evidence of his name being proved innocent, the Kurain Elders conceded that Master Fey's judgement of Phoenix had been entirely correct, and there was no further resistance to his regular presence in Kurain. They now trusted and respected the Master's decisions, as Kurain had improved exponentially under Maya's tenure, both in terms of prosperity and the gradual erosion of the tensions and internal hostility with regards to rank and distance from the 'main family'. [The love and trust still inherent between Maya and Pearl despite all previous attempts to poison their relationship had exerted quite an impression on the Kurain residents.] The Master dividing her time between Kurain and the city to better pursue her goals was now regarded as a reasonable premise, not a wonton abandonment of her duties.

So Phoenix and Maya would now both divide their time between both the city and Kurain. Phoenix again became a lawyer, with Maya as his irreplaceable assistant. That they only performed these roles half the year was not a problem, now Phoenix had another lawyer to take cases and keep an eye on Trucy during his absences. In Kurain, he was happy to fall into the role of _Maya's_ assistant. She was conclusively top dog there. Pearl could be safely entrusted to keep an eye on day to day issues when she and Phoenix were away. Kurain's renaissance of prosperity and amicability meant serious problems were now few.

As Maya again caught the train from Kurain to the city to meet Phoenix one evening, she reflected with renewed awe that in fulfilling her duty to her mother to revive Kurain, she'd somehow also achieved her original deepest wish – to be together with Nick. Well, admittedly somewhat belatedly, she mused. Time, turmoil and distance had taken their toll. They'd both changed…

On the platform now, arranging her luggage. She turned with surprise when someone shadowed her from behind. She'd anticipated them meeting at the office, hadn't expected him coming out to meet her all the way _here_.

Their eyes met, in a flash of something which transported Maya back to _another_ scene, all those years ago…

Things had changed, they'd both changed. But maybe they hadn't changed all that much….

* * *

_**So I didn't want to interrupt the flow of my original story plan, but since this story was better received than I anticipated, I think I'll write some 'supplementary' extra chapters. The time between chapter 10 and the epilogue could use more description – and that's the second fic of mine Maya's been planning to take Phoenix on that beach trip and we still haven't actually seen it. What do you think?  
**_

_'Another' scene was, of course, the train station in 1-4._


End file.
